


Bones

by Alexa_Piper



Series: Ectober 2020 [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ectober (Danny Phantom), Ectober Week 2020 (Danny Phantom), Gen, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27208318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/pseuds/Alexa_Piper
Summary: “Do you think they’re ghost fish?”
Series: Ectober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983812
Comments: 12
Kudos: 79





	Bones

“Do you think they’re ghost fish?”

The odd question snapped Danny out of his daze, and he leaned against the counter and frowned at the group of teenagers gathered at a particular spot in the wall of fish tanks.

“Maybe?” A girl flipped dozens of long, pastel pink braids over her shoulder and leaned closer to the glass.

“They’re glowing!” the first voice said, a boy with ripped jeans and far too much gel in his hair.

“That’s just the light,” the third kid insisted, the soft ultraviolet strip lights making their freckles stand out against pale skin.

“Oh, yeah? You can see their bones, just like ghosts!” hair gel kid retorted. He sent Danny a sidelong glance before dropping his voice to a hiss in an unsuccessful bid to keep the conversation private. “Isn’t that the guy whose parents  _ hunt _ ghosts? Who’s to say they didn’t catch those fish and sell them here for extra profit? It’s not like  _ ghost hunting’s _ gonna pay the bills.”

“Don’t be rude!” the girl hissed.

Danny grinned and pushed himself out of his slouch. “Believe me, ghost hunting doesn’t  _ nearly _ pay the bills,” he said with an easy smile. His voice carried comfortably over the gentle bubbling of air pumps and water filters, and he grinned wider when the kids jumped at his sudden interruption. “Don’t go into that career. Trust me.”

“Is that why you’re working here?” the freckled kid asked, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from the girl. “Ow!”

Danny laughed and waved a noncommittal hand. “Oh, no, this is just to get me through college. Independence and all that. My parents pay the bills with patents for their inventions.”

Hair gel boy scowled. “So… these  _ aren’t _ ghost fish?”

Danny snorted and moved out from behind the counter. “No, they’re not,” he said, walking up to the tank and flicking the light from its ultraviolet setting to normal. “See? No glow. These are just neon tetras, which are naturally a bit transparent so you can see their bones and stuff. We put the UV light on during our busy times, but you can’t leave it on for more than an hour a day because it can hurt them if it’s on too long. It makes them glow nicely though, doesn’t it?”

The kids stared at the tank, and Danny frowned at their lack of reaction. People usually agreed at this point in his little sales pitch, since the fish  _ were _ very pretty, and also incredibly cheap. “They’re good for pretty much any level of aquarium,” he offered. “We do a great deal if you buy three or more, and they generally get along with other kinds of fish.” He trailed off again. Something was…  _ wrong  _ with the way these kids were looking at the tank.

His customer service smile slipped, and he glanced back, wondering what had brought such expressions of horror to their faces.

His hand, still resting on the edge of the tank, was backlit by the strip of fluorescent lighting. It shone at  _ just  _ the right angle to turn his skin and flesh translucent and show the thick white shapes of the bones underneath.

He snatched his hand away, horror tight in his throat, and spun back to face the kids. They flinched away. The girl’s hands were shaking, and their fear pressed against Danny’s core.

“Y-you’re a ghost,” the freckled one croaked.

Danny swallowed thickly, trying to push past the tightness in his throat, and plastered his customer service smile back on. “What, this? Nah, I’ve just been zapped by that UV light for too long!” he joked. “That’s how my boss knows it’s bad for the fish — he tested it on me first!”

One of them — he thought it might have been the one with ripped jeans — made an odd squeaking noise, and without another word, the three teenagers turned and sprinted out of the aquarium store.

Danny sighed and sagged against the wooden framing inlaid in the wall display. “I keep forgetting about that,” he mumbled, and held his hand back up against the glass. It turned translucent again, just like it always did in ghost form, and his bones were clearly visible through his skin.

He briefly wondered if he should invisibly follow one of the kids so he knew where they went and could bribe their silence later, but if his boss heard that he’d abandoned the shop again, he’d be fired for sure. He’d just have to leave it and hope they wouldn’t say anything.

Besides, the Fentons' son being translucent like a ghost? Ridiculous.

Sighing again, Danny made his way back to his spot behind the counter. For a moment he watched the fish as they swam around their tank, colourful scales flashing when they caught the light.

He looked down at his hand, clenching it into a fist, and even in the low lighting of the little aquarium store, chunks of solid white bone were just visible through his skin.

He dropped his hand and shrugged. Sometimes it bothered him a bit, but it could have been worse — at least his human form wasn’t tinted blue like Vlad’s!

**Author's Note:**

> One of my favourite headcanons buried by the annals of fandom time is one where ghosts have translucent skin, so you can see their bones beneath. Halfas are a bit more difficult to see through, but their bones are still easily spotted in ghost form. In human form, while more solid, they’re still not entirely opaque, and all you need is to look at a halfa from the right angle in the correct lighting to realise that something's not quite right...  
> Hence why I thought Danny might work in a quiet, dimly-lit aquarium store.


End file.
